In the 1990s, the Gallup Poll measured support for the death penalty in the United States at 80%. Since then it has fallen into the mid 50%s. The death penalty has long been opposed by human rights and civil rights activists, who question whether capital punishment can be applied fairly and whether the risks of executing innocent people are too great, and by those who consider it morally wrong for the government to take the life of a prisoner who has already been incapacitated by incarceration. But a growing number of non-traditional voices have raised new concerns about the death penalty, questioning its cost, its ineffectiveness in protecting the public and police, the disservice it does to family members of murder victims, its inconsistency with a pro-life ethic and the values of limited government, and whether the money spent on the death penalty could be used more effectively. These new voices represent a variety of perspectives, from judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement veterans to legislators, academics, spiritual leaders, and murder victims’ families.
For more information about new voices in the death penalty discussion, see news features about:
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News & Developments
News
Mar 19, 2021
Former Ohio Governor, Two Attorneys General Call for Repeal of State’s Death Penalty
The movement to repeal capital punishment in Ohio has gained additional steam as former Governor Robert Taft and former state attorneys general Jim Petro and Lee Fisher (pictured, left to right) called on the Ohio state legislature to end the state’s death penalty.
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Mar 26, 2024
Citing a Lack of Evidence, Editors of the Scientific American Call for Abolition of the Death Penalty in New Op-Ed
“It is long past time to abolish the death penalty in the U.S.,” write the editors for the Scientific American. In a March 19, 2024 op-ed titled “Evidence Does Not Support the Use of the Death Penalty,” the authors cite an abundance of studies demonstrating that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, but is a flawed, racially biased, and costly practice responsible for sentencing innocent lives to death.
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Mar 21, 2024
Discussions with DPIC Podcast: Retired Judge Elsa Alcala on the Death Penalty in Texas
In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Judge Elsa Alcala, who served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 2011 to 2018. In addition to serving as a judge at the appeals and trial level, she worked as a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, and most recently as a justice-reform lobbyist during her three-decade career in criminal law. She shares how these experiences have informed her perspective on the death penalty and identifies recommendations for criminal legal reforms.
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Dec 13, 2023
After Five-Year Execution Pause, Ohio Leaders Question Value of Death Penalty
A proposed death penalty repeal bill in the Ohio legislature is drawing attention to the state’s five-year pause on executions, and leading state officials from both parties to question whether the death penalty system is working. Ohio Attorney General David Yost (pictured) summed up the situation by saying, “This system satisfies nobody. Those who oppose the death penalty want it abolished altogether, not ticking away like a time bomb that might or might not explode. Those who support the death penalty want it to be fair, timely and effective. Neither…
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Oct 04, 2023
LA District Attorney Won’t Pursue the Death Penalty Because it “Doesn’t Serve as a Deterrent” and “Does Not Bring People Back”
On September 26, 2023, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced that he would not seek the death penalty in the case of slain Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer. “If I thought that the death penalty was going to stop people from committing brutal murders, I would seek it. But we know that it won’t,” said Gascón at a news conference, “The reality is that the death penalty doesn’t serve as a deterrent, and the death penalty does not bring people back. …What I can assure you is that we’re…
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Sep 26, 2023
New DPIC Podcast: Evangelical Pastor Rich Nathan Discusses How a “Culture of Life” Informs His Opposition to the Death Penalty
In the September 2023 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, speaks with Pastor Rich Nathan (pictured), founding pastor of Vineyard Columbus, an evangelical Christian church based in Ohio. Mr. Nathan shares how religious teachings inform his position on the death penalty. “For me, the opposition to capital punishment has just been a natural extension of our pro-life position of building an inclusive society, a society that welcomes everyone into the human family and says. ‘Listen, your worth is not dependent on whether somebody wants you or…
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Sep 25, 2023
The Metropolitan Opera Premieres “Dead Man Walking” Based on the Book by Sister Helen Prejean
On September 26, 2023, the New York Metropolitan Opera will premiere “Dead Man Walking” created by American composer Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally and featuring a new staging by Ivo van Hove. The opera is based on Sister Helen Prejean’s 1993 memoir which details her journey as a pen pal and spiritual adviser to a death-sentenced prisoner at Louisiana’s Angola State Prison. It is the most performed contemporary opera in the world. “I can only think that somehow we told this human drama very well,” Mr. Heggie said. “It is an…
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Aug 09, 2023
NEW VOICES: Op-Eds Highlight Opposing Viewpoints on Ohio’s Death Penalty
In light of the five-year anniversary of Ohio’s last execution, two op-eds highlighting different views about the death penalty were published in the Dayton Daily News. On August 1, Louis Tobin (pictured right), Executive Director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, expressed his support for the death penalty, and two days later, Reverend Dr. Crystal Walker (pictured left), co-chair of Ohioans to Stop Executions, expressed her support for alternatives to the death penalty.
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Aug 04, 2023
NEW VOICES: Conservative Christian Urges Louisiana Governor to Open the “Door to Redemption” for 56 Death Row Prisoners
In a July 31 Letter to the Editor, Demetrius Minor, the National Manager of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty criticizes the Louisiana Pardon Board decision to decline review of clemency petitions filed by nearly every death-sentenced prisoner in Louisiana.
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Jun 20, 2023
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty Celebrates Juneteenth and Highlights the Continued Fight for Equality and Justice
Juneteenth is a celebration and remembrance of the end of slavery in the United States following the Union’s victory in the Civil War. In June 2021, President Joseph Biden signed legislation establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday, formally commemorating the end of slavery. According to President Biden, “Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slavery and subjugation, and the promise of a greater morning to come.” Among the many groups commemorating Juneteenth was Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a network of political and social conservatives who question the…
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Jun 02, 2023
Conservative Commentator Warns of Dangers of Non-Unanimous Death Sentences
Florida’s recent decision to allow death sentences without a unanimous jury recommendation increases the risk of executing an innocent person, according to conservative commentator Christian Schneider (pictured). In a May 25, 2023 column for The National Review, Schneider argues that conservatives should oppose the law that allows a death sentence to be imposed when only eight jurors agree.
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